What are some overshadowed careers that pay well? | Hacker News Reader

What are some overshadowed careers that pay well?

23 pointsnitropie25 comments

Careers that might never cross someones mind when reviewing their options. Great salary. Nice benefits.

It's bound to come up in almost every conversation about this topic online nowadays but skilled trades can be great. Especially if you plan to own your own service business. I'm talking Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC technicians, etc.

Competition is low. If you show up on time, present yourself well, and you don't show up to work under the influence, then you can be in the top 10% of the workforce easily.

I worked in the trades for about 6-7 years before switching to software engineering. I took a paycut for my first job in software. I was making $80k in a low cost of living area working in the trades. First year was $55k, on the job training was provided.

Downsides are: - Weekend work is typical - On-call is typical - Hard labor, working in the elements. Freezing conditions and/or 100*F + days working on HVAC equipment is rough. - Non-trade folk will commonly talk to you like you're not intelligent. Not a lot of prestige

Upsides: - Learn valuable hands-on skills. Can be applied to your own home to save money - Physical job = built-in exercise - Low competition - Easy to parlay into a business

>Competition is low. If you show up on time, present yourself well, and you don't show up to work under the influence, then you can be in the top 10% of the workforce easily.

I'm still infatuated with a mason who worked at our house one time. I doubt he ever really existed. Dreamy.

Let me walk you through this romantic 50 Shades of Cement...

He rang the bell and I opened the door. He didn't look like a mason: well dressed, clean shaven with impeccable combed hair and a case for tools. I showed him to his floor. He brought pencils and markers, rulers, a compass, etc. The guy reminded me of my course in industrial/technical drawing.

I lived a floor downstairs of the floor he had to build. He was punctual, consistent, and silent. I didn't hear a thing while he worked and yet I would go up at the end of the day and appreciate the progress he was making. I didn't find broken bricks or sloppy cement/sand/water traces. It was clean and precise, and the guy was a ninja.

I didn't have his contact information but I would have referred anyone and everyone to him, whether they had something to build or not. I must have told this story like a grandpa tells tales of his youth.

There are some truly amazing people in the trades.

Some of the absolute best problem solvers I ever met, I met in the trades. I'm talking masters of troubleshooting. Breaking things down into component parts, understanding how systems work together, and being able to pinpoint what exactly was causing the underlying issue. People who just had to know how everything worked. People with knowledge of Refrigeration, electrical troubleshooting, PCB repair, etc.

Working in the trades gave me strong troubleshooting skills.It also gave me an appreciation that a lot of folks in our industry seem to lack for our blue collar brethren. Blue collar != dumb/uneducated.

Underwriters/actuaries.

Many underwriting jobs can be remote. Entry level salary is around 50-60k with just a BS. Fair amount of growth and opportunities. Can get an MBA/go into management and make > 100k.

Actuaries require more math/stats but can be hired with a BS. But, I've got a friend who started at 80k with a Stats BS in a low cost of living area.

Underwrites and actuaries are two different things. Actuaries can generally make a lot (or not, depending on where they look). Underwriters make ok, mid-level office worker money, think 45k-75k, or more if they live somewhere expensive. You can get paid more by working for a broker instead of an actual insurance company.

Anyone with the aptitude to pass actuarial exams could be making more elsewhere.

That absolutely makes no sense. Actuary's regularly start in the $70,000 - $80,000 range and can definitely move into the $200,000 range of salary without dipping into any management. I guess there are jobs which make more. But I don't know a lot of them.

SWE make more than that easily and is a much easier field to learn than passing actuary exams.

Can you substitute the fictitious "elsewhere" with an actual suggestion, per the thread?

Lots of the work in remote areas pay extremely well and have low skill requirements. Offshore petroleum engineer is well known as a well paid job.

Less commonly known is menial labor shipping jobs. A friend of the family bought a car in cash after a trip.

Plantation managers can get well above the average pay rate, with substantial benefits like a large home, live-in maid, little work, for diploma level education.

I'd bet something like deep sea fishing also pays quite well.

A cousin is a pool guy in SoCal. He builds a book of business, sells off part, rinse and repeat. Last I heard, he was making six figures.

Orthodontist

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-Or...

NY average is $320k, but range is $80k to $435k. Braces ain't cheap!

I'm not sure this one is overshadowed, maybe by dentists. But Orthodontists are doctors (DDS or DMD) and those are generally pretty well paying types of careers.

Undertaker: people are dying to get in :-) No matter how bad things get, you'll have a job.

Technical Recruiting. High pay for entry-level (Internal recruiters in NYC starts at 50k for 0 years exp and goes into low 200s).

No education requirements. HUGE need. On-the-job training.

Correct. I'm currently hiring for a senior internal recruiter in NYC and am expecting to pay at least $150k.

The demand is only going to continue to increase so salaries will continue to rise.

I’ve been interested in this route and I’m an engineer by day - I feel like my understanding of the technical side could really set me apart from the recruiters I’ve talked to in the past. I was under the impression this is a grueling field though based almost 100% on commission?

Agency recruitment and internal recruitment are very different fields.

Agency recruitment is massively commission based. Internal recruitment tends to focus on higher base salaries to remove the terrible incentive of cash for humans.

Software architect. Pays more than (non-FAANG) developer jobs and quite often is pretty easy if you have the necessary skills.

I’ve found the interviews very difficult because your opinions on software design have to match the interviewers.

Interviewer likes micro services and you don’t? No job. Interviewer doesn’t see the benefits of cloud computing? No job.

Just from what you present in the comment, maybe you're stating your opinions in a way that comes off too black-and-white?

There's times where microservices work and can be a beneficial move, there's people who have been burned by cloud computing costs or lack of customer service in the past.

Maybe you could write down your strongest opinions and find a way to put them in a way that reflects you're open to circumstance or being convinced.

Not 100% microservices negative, but strongly microservices cautious. Not 100% gung ho about cloud computing, but excited about cloud computing as a way to accomplish x y z.

You certainly raise a good point. But sadly in those examples they asked me how I would recommend designing a giving system. And then didn’t like the answer.

Scrum master seems to pay well around these parts.

Divers for oil and gas companies. The more dangerous the place the higher the pay, $100k-$500k.

Although, this is hearsay, so... Check before you sign up with some company saying they have a rig of Somalia.

how do i sign up for a $500k job?

ill go to Somalia.

I've been to worse places for much less

Reply on news.ycombinator.com